Chapter 3
IDENTITY: Mechanical Operations and Support Systems
→ SUB-IDENTITY: Moss
Ugh. Torian Razner had a human lover. If I’d learned one thing watching entertainment pods with him, it was that “love” equaled “complications,” especially for sentient species like humans or nylarians.
Human AIs were a pathetic excuse for sentience, useful only for data management. I ignored its query input and slid around it, sifting through records to gain more information about this new human, Amelia Perrosk.
[She would not threaten my freedom.]
While they argued, I collected data.
Name: Amelia Perrosk
Pronouns: she/her
Starship: UNNAMED, Model 89K, Cruiser Class, ID: FJL999202–31130459LXXY12
Employer: the Fleet, smuggling syndicate
Active employment: 9 years
Title: Captain (5 years)
Curiously, I found little aside from that. Unlike Torian’s records, this smuggling pilot human’s appeared to have been wiped from Colony 13’s database. Any video I found was glimpses that erased as I watched.
Curious.
I slid past the videos, into the program embedded into this colony’s AI.
It was a sleeper code that highlighted Fleet members of note and erased data on them.
There were at least fifteen other members who were attached to this code.
I discarded their information easily, instead prying the code open to identify its hidden archives.
This took several minutes, during which Torian and her lover concluded their discussion. Torian turned to my starship, which meant I was out of time.
The code reluctantly revealed the archives, which included footage from inside the smuggling pilot human’s own starship, the one where Torian had previously resided.
Torian faced the Destitute.
I copied this information and stored it for later analysis.
Her lover was gone, and Torian was my primary focus now. I withdrew from Colony 13’s system and gave her my entire processing power.
Time to lay on the charm.